I have been watching for this every day and it is finally here. Tons of information and if you plan on doing anything with real estate this year, you will probably want to read it all. Excellent job done by Tom For Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service.

This report is based on facts, the stuff that really happened reported by the people working the market. The numbers are actual.

***Our annual spoiler alert*** This report is lengthy by normal STAT standards, and as the name STAT infers, there are a lot of numbers. For those of you not into that sort of thing, here’s our annual tweet: “2017 was a very good year for housing and 2018 is projected to be even better.”

It’s that time of year again. The 2017 numbers are in the books and it’s time for our annual year in review. We’re going to start by taking a quick look back at our quarterly reports and then follow up the three quarterly excerpts with a look at six key metrics in 2017 To read the whole report and view the graphs click on the link below.

Net Worth of Homeowners 44X Greater than Renters

Every three years, the Federal Reserve conducts their Survey of Consumer Financesin which they collect data across all economic and social groups. The latest survey data, covering 2013-2016 was released two weeks ago.

The study revealed that the 2016 median net worth of homeowners was $231,400 – a 15% increase since 2013. At the same time, the median net worth of renters decreased by 5% ($5,200 today compared to $5,500 in 2013).

These numbers reveal that the net worth of a homeowner is over 44 times greater than that of a renter.

Owning a home is a great way to build family wealth

As we’ve said before, simply put, homeownership is a form of ‘forced savings.’ Every time you pay your mortgage, you are contributing to your net worth by increasing the equity in your home.

That is why, for the fourth year in a row, Gallupreported that Americans picked real estate as the best long-term investment. This year’s results showed that 34% of Americans chose real estate, followed by stocks at 26% and then gold, savings accounts/CDs, or bonds.

Greater equity in your home gives you options

If you want to find out how you can use the increased equity in your home to move to a home that better fits your current lifestyle, let’s get together to discuss the process.

BUYER CAN’T “BLACKMAIL” SELLER WITH EARNEST MONEY

Buyer Can’t “Blackmail” Seller With Earnest Money

Question: On the day of the closing of the sale of our Peoria home, the buyer refused without any reason to sign the closing documents, even after we gave the buyer the required three-day cure period notice. We need to close the sale of our Peoria home in order to close escrow in two weeks on the purchase of a new home in Mesa.

When we told the seller of the Mesa home about our problem, the seller was very nice and agreed to give us a 60-day extension to close. Our real estate agent said that we should be able to sell our Peoria home during this 60-day extension period. The buyer of our Peoria home, however, is demanding the return of his $5,000 earnest money. He says that, if we don’t agree to refund his $5,000 earnest money, he will delay any sale of our Peoria home to a new buyer by filing a lis pendens. What is a lis pendens? Although we know that we are being blackmailed, should we agree to refund this $5,000 earnest money?

Answer: No. If the only reason that the buyer is not buying your Peoria home is “buyer’s remorse,” you should be able to cancel the purchase contract after the buyer failed to close on the scheduled closing date. The title company then should pay the $5,000 earnest money to you.

Note: A lis pendens means that there is a pending lawsuit regarding who is entitled to the ownership of the home. The buyer of your Peoria home could file a lawsuit, and record a lis pendens, only if the buyer had a claim for specific performance of the purchase contract to buy the home. The buyer does not, however, because the buyer no longer wants the home. Therefore, the recording of a lis pendens would be wrongful. Under A.R.S § 33-420(A), the buyer could then be liable to you for a $5,000 penalty, plus your attorney’s fees, for wrongfully recording this lis pendens.

The study also revealed that:

Roughly 63% of all homeowners have seen their equity increase since Q1 2016

The average homeowner gained about $14,000 in equity between Q1 2016 and Q1 2017

Only 1.6% of residential properties are near-negative equity

Below is a map showing the percentage of homes with a mortgage, in each state, that have positive equity. (The states in gray have insufficient data to report.)

Significant Equity Is On The Rise

Frank Martell, President & CEO of CoreLogic, believes this is great news for the “long-term health of the U.S. economy.” He went on to say:

“Homeowner equity increased by $766 billion over the last year, the largest increase since Q2 2014. The rising cushion of home equity is one of the main drivers of improved mortgage performance. Since home equity is the largest source of homeowner wealth, the increase in home equity also supports consumer balance sheets, spending and the broader economy.”

Of the 93.9% of homeowners with positive equity in the US, 78.8% have significant equity (defined as more than 20%). This means that nearly three out of four homeowners with a mortgage could use the equity in their current home to purchase a new home, now.

The map below shows the percentage of homes with a mortgage, in each state, that have significant equity. (The states in gray have insufficient data to report.)

Bottom Line

If you are one of the many homeowners who are unsure of how much equity they have in their homes and are curious about their ability to move, let’s meet up to evaluate your situation

Maureen has been our angel in the times of unknown. We will be always be grateful for her loyalty and kindness. Thank you for proving that buying/ selling a house can be respectable. We do NOT take for granted all you have done!!! Thank YOU!!! YOU TRULY ARE THE BEST!!!❞